Grey House Spider

Facts about Grey Grey House Spiders, "Scientific name for Grey House Spider is Zosis geniculatus". Grey house spider is mostly seen in urban areas. They are also known by the name Window Spiders. As per zoological classification it belongs to the Family Desidae. Few other categories are found all across Australia.

Identification of Grey House Spider

The Grey House Spider looks like a dark robust one. Females are bigger than males in size. Legs are carapace are too dark, may be brown in rare cases. The Grey House Spider abdomen shines like a polished charcoal and it has might have white patches on its dorsal side. These white marks may not be distinct at times, but they do present. The Grey House Spider becomes as big as 14 mm. The legs seem to spread out from the abdomen.

The Grey House Spiders weave webs and mostly in a funnel like shape. This is the reason they are often mistaken for funnel-web spider, but both of them are not similar. The structure of the Grey House Spider web is designed to capture the prey while it tries to fly across the web and ends up in the narrow end. The narrow end usually has a thicker weaving density. Once trapped, the prey doesn’t get away.

Grey House Spiders have oversize brains.
In the Grey House Spider the oxygen is bound to "hemocyanin" a copper-based protein that turns their blood blue, a molecule that contains copper rather than iron. Iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells turns the blood red

Grey House Spiders have two body parts, the front part of the body is called the Cephalothorax-(the thorax and fused head of spiders). Also on this part of the body is the Grey House Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Grey House Spiders also have these tiny little leg-type things called (pedipalps) that are next to the fangs. They are used to hold food while the spider bites it. The next part of the Grey House Spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

When the female Grey House Spider can be as big as 1/2 to 11/16 inches (14 to 18 mm) the male grows to only half of the size of the female, about 3/8 inches (9 mm). They are widely distributed in southern and eastern Australia. They are peridomestic also they pertain to live around human habitats.

Feeding & Diet of Grey House Spider

The Grey House Spider reside mostly in rough barked trees. This portion of the tree also helps them as shelter and to hide among the cracks. Wood boring insects leave the trunks after boring a hole in them and the sap flowing from it attracts bees, flies and ants. These organisms become prey of the Grey House Spiders.

The Grey House Spider feed on arthropods and are carnivorous & insectivorous.

Life Cycle Grey House Spider

The female Grey House Spider weaves white egg sacs and they are secured in the web. The female guards the eggs until they are hatched and the spiderlings spread out. The Grey House Spiders live as long as two years and attain physical growth and maturity in summer.

Spiders belong to a group of animals called "arachnids", mites and Scorpions and a tick is also in the arachnid family. An Arachnids is a creature with eight legs, two body parts, no antennae or wings and are not able to chew on food. Spiders are not insects because insects have three main body parts and six legs and most insects have wings.

The Arachnids are even in a larger group of animals called "arthropods" an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, which also include spiders, crustaceans and insects. They are the largest group in the animal world, about 80% of all animals come from this group. There are over a million different species. There are more than 40,000 different types of spiders in the world.

The muscles in a Grey House Spiders legs pull them inward, but the spider can't extend its legs outward. It will pump a watery liquid into its legs that pushes them out. A Grey House Spider’s legs and body are covered with lots of hair and these hairs are water-repellent, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so the Grey House Spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A Grey House Spider feels its prey with chemo sensitive hairs on its legs and than feels if the prey is edible. The leg hair picks up smells and vibrations from the air. There are at minimum, two small claws that are at the end of the legs. Each Grey House Spiders leg has six joints, giving the spider 48 leg joints. The Grey House Spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Grey Grey House Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a Grey House Spider needs to liquefy their food before they eat. They bite on their prey and empty its stomach liquids into the pray which turns it into a soup for them to drink.

A male Grey House Spider has two appendages called "pedipalps" a sensory organ, instead of a penis, which is filled with sperm and insert by the male into the female Grey House Spider’s reproductive opening.

Grey House Spiders do not have a skeletons. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton-(a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals). The exoskeleton is hard, so it can’t grow with the spider. The young Grey House Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The Grey House Spider has to climb out of the old shell through the cephalothorax. Once out, they must spread themselves out before the new exoskeleton will harden. Now they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell. Female Grey House Spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Grey House Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Grey House Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.